David Hudspeth

Turns out wind power white ants the business case of French nuclear in the same way it is eating the lunch of coal-fired generation in Australia.

Carney’s rallying cry to ‘middle powers’ includes Australia - and we should heed his call

The Canadian leader’s powerful speech has garnered headlines for his admission that the rules-based international order has been ruptured.

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Rain one minute, heatwave the next. How climate ‘whiplash’ drives unpredictable fire weather We’re not going to be able to stop climate instability and associated dangerous wildfire weather, so we need to adapt.

Rain one minute, heatwave the next. How climate ‘whiplash’ drives unpredictable fire weather
theconversation.com/rain-one-min...

Confidential advice undercooked climate change to Howard government Cabinet briefings in 2005 warned of climate change, but did not anticipate the scale and severity of the impacts now playing out.

“As something of an omen to the catastrophic bushfires of 2009 and 2019 -2020, the cabinet papers flagged the risk of more frequent and intense bushfires, yet the Howard government pushed those risks aside and chose not to act on climate change” www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer Volunteers found thousands of dead bats at Melbourne’s Brimbank park, wildlife expert says

Mass mortality event in grey headed fruit bats- bad on so many reasons: any loss of wildlife is tragic; greyheaded fruit bats pollinate our big trees, often migratory along the east coast & fruit bats are mammals, so when one species reaches its upper thermal limit it’s a major warning for MAMMALS 😬

On investigative journalism. Tassie friends in particular,

With the current focus on youth crime and detention worth considering the consequences of sweeping institutional abuse under the carpet.

Can we break the human development-environment trade-off? The opportunity to build a human-nature relationship that is not zero-sum.

open.substack.com/pub/hannahri...

Paint by Numbers: A health check on the Australian media industry This year the Australian media industry managed to avoid the bloodbath of 2024. But that doesn't mean the picture is rosy.

5% of Australians have a news subscription and 39% avoid news. www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/04/a...

Sheep and cattle farmer describes what gross misinformation about wind farms looks like in a small regional community – and what it costs the people who live there.

Powerful Owlets this morning in a Brisbane conservation park. Two weeks ago an adult was found suffering from poisoning (ban 2nd generation rodenticide!) about 1km away. We're not sure it's the papa of these two, but we're regularly checking in on them to see if they are OK and being fed (they are).

Read the full comment by Rick Morton: satpa.pe/6wPohd0

The thing to do at this point might be to re read Samuel’s forward to the EPBC review and focus on the failure of responsibility over the last five years and what actually is in the national interest, which is addressing ongoing environmental decline. www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/defaul...

The segregation crisis in schools funding In the Albanese government’s first term, Education Minister Jason Clare observed that Australia has one of the most segregated education systems in the OECD. What is deeply shocking – though not surpr...

My latest on the ever-deepening inequity in our school system. You know, the one we hate to talk about. In today’s The Saturday Paper. www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/share/21678/...

YouTube video by Rockway Mennonite Collegiate Running on Sunshine - Rockway Mennonite Collegiate 2025

"We used to consume fossil fuels
to make ourselves power
But now we just look to the sun
for each kilowatt hour"

This is the cutest and most encouraging video I've seen all week. Give it a watch - and share if you agree!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MgK...

Why Labor is stalling on real universities funding reform The education minister has deferred action to abolish the Morrison-era Job-ready Graduates scheme, which has helped to hollow out tertiary funding and saddled students with lifelong debts.

The Coalition's Job-ready Graduate program was meant to incentivise students by making popular degrees such as humanities much more expensive. Five years on, fewer than one in 50 changed their choice due to the program, so why is Labor wedded to it? satpa.pe/KQ7jXZQ

Climate target malpractice

"Understanding how Australia has cooked the books to create the illusion of climate progress is headache-inducing. It’s important, though, in order to see that raising ambition without raising integrity won’t necessarily cut emissions." satpa.pe/Q3u86az

Certainly not an evidence based approach from Victorian Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos or the ETU. Environmental decline is not in the interest of workers.

Climate target malpractice

"Understanding how Australia has cooked the books to create the illusion of climate progress is headache-inducing. It’s important, though, in order to see that raising ambition without raising integrity won’t necessarily cut emissions." http://satpa.pe/9DX83pv

Aboriginal children with disabilities to bear the brunt of Northern Territory Government's policy failures

Aboriginal children with disabilities to bear the brunt of Northern Territory Government's policy failures www.croakey.org/aboriginal-c... #publichealth

Have taken advantage of the subsidy in Burwood Vic and will enjoy using our stored solar in peak power periods. Makes sense to use energy where it is generated.

Supreme Court Challenge to North West Shelf We’re taking the WA Government to court over Woodside’s climate-wrecking gas project.

Supreme Court Challenge to North West Shelf chuffed.org/project/1358...

‘A bomb thrown into the middle of science’: Trump cuts hurt Australian medical research Local research institutes are suspending projects and laying off staff as US funds dry up.

Trump hurting us all. www.theage.com.au/healthcare/a...

Today's front page: "Exclusive: PBS listings frozen over Trump’s executive order". https://trib.al/9YjpoC4

The real reason for the North West Shelf project The polluting impact of fossil fuels is not new to those who peddle them. Nearly 30 years ago, when I was an executive at BP, we acknowledged climate change and what it would bring – despite others in...

The real reason for the North West Shelf project www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

Just putting this out there for all the people who think we're going too fast on decarbonisation

Camperdown traces The 70-year-old author revisits the south-west Victorian town where, half a century ago, he was a cub reporter at The Chronicle

Camperdown traces www.themonthly.com.au/june-2025/na...

Could a river sue a corporation? Robert Macfarlane’s books change the world – now he’s advocating for the world’s waterways The revered nature writer asks ambitious questions in his latest work, written at a tipping point for the world’s climate.

Could a river sue a corporation? Robert Macfarlane’s books change the world – now he’s advocating for the world’s waterways
theconversation.com/could-a-rive...

Trump backflips and lifts ban on huge US offshore wind project Norwegian energy giant gets all clear to resume construction of wind farm off coast of New York, just weeks after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order.

#PlanetWind @reneweconomy.com.au
reneweconomy.com.au/trump-backfl...